Genshin Impact dev says Breath of the Wild comparisons took a toll on the studio

gamesradar.com:

Genshin Impact has always drawn comparisons with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and now a developer has finally acknowledged said comparisons. 

At Genshin Impact FES 2023 in Shanghai, China last week, miHoYo Studio head Liu Wei gave a small keynote speech about the history of developing Genshin Impact, as first reported by ComicBookResources. It seems miHoYo received some negative feedback towards Genshin Impact while it was in the closed beta stage, with some testers alleging it had copied Breath of the Wild.

Wei never specifically mentions Breath of the Wild in his speech, but this beta test would've been around the same time Genshin Impact was first revealed in 2019. At the time, there were many who noted the similarities in art style and climbing mechanics to Breath of the Wild, which at that point would've released just over two years in 2017. Take a look below for an example of how unhinged things got.

When Mihoyo unveiled Genshin Impact for PS4, many noted the game was inspired by BOTW. Some fans of BOTW are upset that Sony is promoting this game because of the similarities + they think it’s shameless of Sony. This man smashed his PS4 at ChinaJoy in protest. pic.twitter.com/jwJqwREgazAugust 3, 2019

Wei reveals these allegations took a bit of a toll on developers at miHoYo. Many at the studio were left wondering what they had done wrong, and where all the anger from people around the world was coming from. Others, though, saw it as a challenge, to make Genshin Impact as good as it possibly could be to denounce the allegations. 

Genshin Impact would launch little over a year later in 2020, and in the years since has cultivated a huge following around the world with a steady stream of new areas to explore,